October 2017

Fall is both a time of harvesting and of letting go. I’ve harvested some delicious veggies recently. This is the time when the hot weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and egg plants are thriving and what a delicious harvest. At the same time, one sees the trees cutting their losses and letting their leaves go early because of the extremely dry and hot weather. No beautiful reds and brilliant oranges just browns and dull yellows, the leaves curled up as they fall to the ground. Not to mention the torrent of seeds that the trees are letting go- beware of a falling black walnut on your head if you choose to walk in a forest! Yet these fallen leaves will turn into wonderful mulch and compost and the seeds will germinate new life when the rain returns. In nature letting go helps generate new life.

Among the important feasts of our founders, St. Francis’s is one of the most recognizable.  October 4th was the celebration of the life and legacy of St. Francis of Assisi.  One of the most meaningful aspects of this is the Transitus (the vigil on October 3rd), which commemorates the move from life to eternal life.  As St. Francis anticipated his own transition from life to eternal life, he added to his famous Canticle of the Creatures.  In the style of the rest of the Canticle, he addresses death as Sister Bodily Death.  St.

Sister Calzada is a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word (San Antonio). Originally from Mexico City, she enjoys spending time with her two sisters and three nieces. This year her parents celebrated 40 years of marriage and she comments how this example is one of "how love endures and transforms." She's lived in the U.S. now for a year and enjoys meeting and talking to people, reading, listening to music, and taking walks along Lake Michigan in Chicago where she studies at Catholic Theological Union.

If you're a young Catholic sister in your 20s or 30s, we invite you to join us for this year's retreat. You will have an empowering experience of faith and community!

In order to enable younger women religious to better connect, network and collaborate, Giving Voice will publish an online directory of Catholic sisters under fifty years of age who are in a Roman Catholic, canonical institute or society of vowed women religious. The deadline is Friday, October 27.

Click here to participate